The Tåîchô will have their own legislative bodies in the area's
four communities, of which the chiefs must be Tåîchô, though anyone may
run for councillor and vote. The legislatures will have, among
other authorities, the power to collect taxes, levy resource
royalties, which currently go to the federal government, and
control hunting, fishing and industrial development.

The Tåîchô will also receive payments of $152 million over 15
years and annual payments of approximately $3.5 million.

The federal government will retain control of criminal law, as it
does across Canada, and the NWT will control services such as
health care and education.

This land-claims process took twenty years to conclude. A
similar process with the Inuit
in the NWT brought about the creation of the new territory of Nunavut. Though Tłįchǫ will not
be a separate territory, the extent of its powers has invited
comparisons both with the birth of Nunavut and with the creation of
the NWT government in 1967.

The writer Richard Van Camp, author of The Lesser
Blessed, is a member of this nation from Fort Smith, NWT.

The artist James Wedzin is a member of this nation from
Behchoko, Northwest Territories.

Notes

The novel White Bird Black Bird, by Val Wake, a CBC
Northern Service reporter based in Yellowknife from 1969 to 1973,
tells the story of Dogrib input into the formation of the NWT
Indian Brotherhood. A lot of the action is set in what was then
called Rae.

Helm, June, and Jordan Paper. 1996. "Prophecy and Power Among
the Dogrib Indians". The Journal of Religion. 76, no. 4:
675.

Helm, June, and Nancy Oestreich Lurie. The Subsistence
Economy of the Dogrib Indians of Lac La Martre in the Mackenzie
District of the Northwest Territories. Ottawa: Northern
Co-ordination and Research Centre, Dept. of Northern Affairs and
National Resources, 1961.

Szathmary EJ, and N Holt. 1983. "Hyperglycemia in Dogrib
Indians of the Northwest Territories, Canada: Association with Age
and a Centripetal Distribution of Body Fat". Human Biology; an
International Record of Research. 55, no. 2: 493-515.